Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Sally PB]

There's a stark difference in how our younger, 10-month pullets are dealing with the cold vs. how the nearly 3- and 4-year-olds are.

I'm glad you said that. I've noticed the same thing and was wondering if the older birds had some other issue going on, other than the cold.

 

[Shadrach]

One could be forgiven for thinking Shadrach has a single track mind along which chickens run all day and all night. Truth is I have other interests, possibly as expensive as chickens. relative to income of course
I like music and even worse, I am, and have been since I earn't my first wage packet, interested in audio reproduction.

High Fidelity audio reproduction is being able to reproduce as closely as possible whatever is on ones chosen media. Forget about anything sounding like live music, physics makes this virtually impossible with a two transducers (speakers) or even multi speaker surround systems.

What is on your chosen media, record, CD, tape, file, can be measured and if one is slightly obsessed, the aim is to reproduce whatever is on the media with the greatets accuracy. There are as one might expect, problems. One such is it has been found through double blind listening tests (plus other means) that people don't in fact like the sound of a completely flat response over the entire frequency the medium can produce. Through various tests it has been established that people prefer a particular response curve and the dotted lines in the graphs below represent one such curve. There are others, but they tend to be failry close to the ones in the graphs.
on the left of the graphs (Y axis) is how loud the response is and at the bottom (X axis) is the frequency, low bass being far left and high treble being at the far right. The red and green lines represent the response of the particular piece of equipment being measured. The closer to the dotted line the response (red and green lines) are, the higher the fidelity to the preference curve and hopefully the better the music sounds.

One of the problems in letting Shadrach have a day of with his bank card and no financial guardian (wives/husbands, bank managers) is he is apt to buy stuff!
I did.
My headphones for serious music listening were twenty years old and a few weeks ago I stood on them and they broke. I've had them lashed up with duck tape and stuff but even the most parsimonious would admit they need replacing.
I did.
Given I live in a flat complex I can't see the other residents accepting the breakage of my headphones as an excuse for me playing music at 2am on my stereo system at 94dB; loud!

The first graph is a set of headphones. The second graph a set of ear buds which have at last come of age and become high fidelity at a truely astounding low cost; £25.00!

There are bits of computer software called Parametric equalizers with which one can adjust the frequency response of loudspeakers to bring the response of headphones, IEMs to bring them closer to the ideal response (the dotted line).
I have a parametric equalizer on all my computers which is what I use to play lossless audio files.

I expected the headphones to sound excellent but what has surprised me is just how good the £25.00 IEMs are.

There, that makes a change from off topic dogs and cats.

 

[Sally PB]

Fascinating!

 

[MrsNorthie]

I have trouble understanding those posts where people claim their chickens are not fazed at all by the cold. Or maybe it's dry cold with sunshine and no wind ?

We have been in the teens F -7C at night and in the low 30's to mid 40's (-1 to 6C) during the day, but it hasn't been getting above freezing until after 9 AM. I have been leaving our chickens in the coop until it gets above freezing out, because all the little maniac fluff butts go out no matter what the conditions are. We had monsoon type rains before the temps dropped, and they were all frolicking through the mud and rain like it was summer. *sigh So I had to herd them into the coop and shut them in.

 

[MrsNorthie]

One could be forgiven for thinking Shadrach has a single track mind along which chickens run all day and all night. Truth is I have other interests, possibly as expensive as chickens. relative to income of course
I like music and even worse, I am, and have been since I earn't my first wage packet, interested in audio reproduction.

High Fidelity audio reproduction is being able to reproduce as closely as possible whatever is on ones chosen media. Forget about anything sounding like live music, physics makes this virtually impossible with a two transducers (speakers) or even multi speaker surround systems.

What is on your chosen media, record, CD, tape, file, can be measured and if one is slightly obsessed, the aim is to reproduce whatever is on the media with the greatets accuracy. There are as one might expect, problems. One such is it has been found through double blind listening tests (plus other means) that people don't in fact like the sound of a completely flat response over the entire frequency the medium can produce. Through various tests it has been established that people prefer a particular response curve and the dotted lines in the graphs below represent one such curve. There are others, but they tend to be failry close to the ones in the graphs.
on the left of the graphs (Y axis) is how loud the response is and at the bottom (X axis) is the frequency, low bass being far left and high treble being at the far right. The red and green lines represent the response of the particular piece of equipment being measured. The closer to the dotted line the response (red and green lines) are, the higher the fidelity to the preference curve and hopefully the better the music sounds.

One of the problems in letting Shadrach have a day of with his bank card and no financial guardian (wives/husbands, bank managers) is he is apt to buy stuff!
I did.
My headphones for serious music listening were twenty years old and a few weeks ago I stood on them and they broke. I've had them lashed up with duck tape and stuff but even the most parsimonious would admit they need replacing.
I did.
Given I live in a flat complex I can't see the other residents accepting the breakage of my headphones as an excuse for me playing music at 2am on my stereo system at 94dB; loud!

The first graph is a set of headphones. The second graph a set of ear buds which have at last come of age and become high fidelity at a truely astounding low cost; £25.00!

There are bits of computer software called Parametric equalizers with which one can adjust the frequency response of loudspeakers to bring the response of headphones, IEMs to bring them closer to the ideal response (the dotted line).
I have a parametric equalizer on all my computers which is what I use to play lossless audio files.

I expected the headphones to sound excellent but what has surprised me is just how good the £25.00 IEMs are.

There, that makes a change from off topic dogs and cats.

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View attachment 3728645

Music is a must and music that you love was meant to be experienced, not just listened to and that typically means it can get rather loud. I think you deserve the treat.

 

[Shadrach]

Two hours today. Cold at around 0C with quite a lot of sunshine and pale blue skies.
Henry is struggling. I hope I am wrong but I don't think he will live for much longer. It's just too cold for him at his age which is now probably nine years old as best we can estimate. He's had a hard life, poor nutrition, terrible housing, too many hens. It says great things about his genes that he's got this far. Dig spends a lot of time with Henry when they are out. Dig has watched Henry do the I've found food behaviour and this afternoon I saw Dig trying it out for the first time. I think Henry is teaching Dig how to be a rooster. Unfortunately I'm not there enough to understand how he is teaching and what he is teaching.
Henry is talking a lot. He didn't used to. He's a quiet chap in general.

This picture tells a lot about the shape Henry is in and that the hens know. Note that he is not on his usual perch. There has been no major change in wind direction. I watched the whole going to roost bit and it all went very quietly. Henry got in first and once he was settled Fret sqeezed up close to him. You can see the gap between Fret and Carbon which didn't exist until Fret shuffled up as close as she could to Henry. Mow as you can see is on the other side of Henry and after this picture, she was tight up agaisnt him. They're trying to keep him warm.

I picke Henry up and sat him on my lap for a while. He didn't protest and settled down part dozing with my arms around him to shelter him from the wind. In the past when I've picked him up he's generated a lot of warmth. Today he felt cold and he felt cold when I gave him a goodnight stroke on the roost bar as I do most nights. There are no signs of him being sick. He's parasite free. His droppings are good. He's eating well and has no odd lumps that I could feel. I think he's just old and tired.

If he dies in the next few months my hope is Dig has inherited his strength and temperament and the hens will accept him as their rooster.

 

[Sally PB]

If it's Henry's time, I wish him an easy passing. What a fine rooster he has been.

 

[fuzzi]

If it's Henry's time, I wish him an easy passing. What a fine rooster he has been.

Yes. And he sired a son to carry on.

 

[BDutch]

duck tape

Not so very long ago I learned it is actually Duct tape.

playing music at 2am on my stereo system at 94dB; loud!

I like to listen to music but certainly would complain if you were doing so as my neighbour.
Congrats with your new headphones.

There's a stark difference in how our younger, 10-month pullets are dealing with the cold vs. how the nearly 3- and 4-year-olds are.

When my chickens were young they were more playfully and curious. Now they are like old people , hiding behind a plant in the window and looking outside to see what is happening.
In fact they are hiding under a plant (Portuguese laurel) and looking outside to see what us going on. It seems they only come out for treats or when they are getting hungry. Older certainly means less active. My chickens are all above 3 and my oldest is 9.

Henry is struggling.

Sorry to hear this. I hope he has another year to lay back and become a grandad.

 

[no fly zone]

Hope Henry has several more years left.